Timothy Justin Hicks was 31 and a Cherokee County firefighter when he and his wife Amber were shot to death in their Chestnut Hill, Acworth, Georgia home on the night of November 17, 2021. The couple had a two-year-old son who was upstairs during the attack and was found alone with his parents’ bodies about 12 hours later; he was unharmed but covered in their blood when relatives arrived the next morning.

Investigators say a neighbor, 22-year-old Matthew Scott Lanz, stood in the family’s backyard for nearly an hour before breaking in through a back window and shooting both victims multiple times. Justin was shot three times, the final shot to his head being fatal; Amber’s wounds suggested she had been in a defensive posture. Ballistics matched 9mm casings at the scene to Lanz’s pistol, and surveillance footage reportedly shows Lanz leaving the house and driving away.

Lanz was arrested the following day after a separate arrest in Sandy Springs during which he stabbed an officer and was shot by police. Prosecutors referenced a history of harassment linked to the house involving Lanz’s brother as part of the case. Was anyone in the neighborhood aware of ongoing problems at the property before November 17, 2021?